Investigation on ion behavior in magnetically shielded and unshielded Hall thrusters by laser-induced fluorescence

Abstract

Non-intrusive characterization of the ion velocity distribution functions at several points of interest in 600 W magnetically shielded MSHT-600 and unshielded USHT-600 Hall thrusters plume by laser-induced fluorescence was conducted. Several visual clues supporting the magnetic shielding effect of MSHT-600 were presented. The measured ion axial velocity distribution functions show that the ion axial velocity is higher and observed to reach the maximum at nearer location to the exit plane on the centerline in the magnetically shielded Hall thruster than that in the unshielded one under the same operating conditions but uniformly distributed in the radial direction when ignoring the slower population for both thrusters. These results are in accordance with the higher specific impulse measured in several other shielded Hall thrusters. Moreover, the ion axial velocity on the centerline is higher than the average axial velocity at other radial locations for the same axial distance downstream of the exit plane in USHT-600, while the higher plume divergence or the inner pole erosion causes the velocity on the centerline to decrease in MSHT-600. The downstream shift of the accelerating potential and electric field distribution are also the typical features in magnetically shielded Hall thrusters as reported in other studies. Finally, the xenon ion velocity vector fields show that the ion population starts to meet and diverge further downstream of the exit plane in MSHT-600 than that in USHT-600, which may be associated with the difference of the plume divergence.